


Brightly Burn

by Critter_Cantrip



Series: Dancing with Fire [6]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad BDSM Etiquette, Breathplay, M/M, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Rope Bondage, Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 12:47:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15437379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Critter_Cantrip/pseuds/Critter_Cantrip
Summary: Caleb's demon and Molly resolve an extended previous discussion on the limits of their dance.





	Brightly Burn

**Author's Note:**

> Comments graciously appriciated.
> 
> Takes place prior to the events of Command Me to be Well, and The Least of Us.
> 
> This is everything Caleb has to lose in my canon divergent pocket universe. 
> 
> This is why he does everything he does in Command Me to Be Well. 
> 
> This is a series, you can read it without the backstory if you wish but it may not make as much sense.

“Mollymauk, I do not think this is a good idea.” Caleb shifted back in the bed, putting a small amount of distance between himself and the tiefling.

Molly let out a frustrated growl before pausing and visibly collecting himself. “I get it. You’re new to all this.” Molly flipped his body so that he was laying on his side. He held out the blanket, half wrapped around him, and patted the bed.

Caleb muttered under his breath in Zemnian before he settled down next to Molly. While Molly’s interest in him was unmistakable, the tiefling didn’t so much as twitch a hip as he settled the blanket around the two of them. It was a bitterly cold night. Even in the relatively cozy Inn their room was nippy enough that being naked was an experience.

“Well, do you want to go first or should I?” Molly asked. Caleb started to speak, paused, and tried to order his thoughts.

“Me first then,” Molly said. “Right. You want to. It’s clear as day to me.”

Caleb started to say something but Molly shushed him. “Here, now, let me have my turn. I’m not as old as, well, anyone, I suppose, but I grew up fast. And I grew up around strange folks with strange talents. There weren’t a great deal of taboos except don’t accidently flash a kid in costume changes.”

Caleb snorted but kept any comments to himself. Molly nipped his ear in appreciation. “Better. So, I’ve done this a few times. It’s fine. It’s more than fine, it’s hot as sin and powerful as a heavenly choir. It’s. Absolutely. Fine.”

Caleb closed his eyes, felt the heat radiating from Molly behind him, imagined what he wanted to do in precise detail. His stomach flipped and he carefully swallowed.

“Spit it out, then. You’ve got something eating away at you,” Molly said after a lengthy pause.

Caleb ran a hand over his face and stilled the urge to dart out of the bed and flee the room entirely. A foot twitched unbidden and Caleb turned the movement into a dramatic flop in the bed. He was now face to face with Molly. He quickly tucked his head under Molly’s jaw.

Molly sighed and ran his fingers through Caleb’s hair. It was delicious and unintentionally teasing as the talons lightly grazed his scalp.

“Damn it, Molly,” Caleb said in a rough voice. His hands reached up and grasped Molly’s hair in return and gave it a sharp yank back. Molly laughed as he acquiesced and allowed Caleb full control of his head. His neck stretched deeply in an elegant curve.

Caleb nipped at the life blood just under the surface. His tongue ran lazy circles near Molly’s ear. His teeth nipped at a tantalizing curve before layering kisses down the side of Molly’s face.

Molly relaxed, aroused and pliant. When Caleb pushed Molly onto his back Molly whimpered softly and almost reached down to touch himself before moving his hands to rest near his side.

This was his. This gorgeous man. This fierce and beautiful creature that obeyed him. Asked him to own him. Wanted to be --

Caleb stopped. He heard the demands of his demon who looked on Molly with delight and desire and a need for more, so much more.

Caleb grabbed Molly’s hands and pushed them above his head. He pinned them there in his left hand. It was a farce, a polite fiction. Molly could free himself in a hundred different ways.

But he won’t, his demon whispered. He is ours. His body is ours. His desire is ours. His pleasure is ours. His life --

Caleb let out a shuddering breath and rested his head again under Molly’s head. He breathed in the smell of leather and incense and the oil that Molly used to clean his swords. It all mixed with that bit of masculine scent that was unique to this man and defined him.

Molly lay quietly beneath him, waiting. Willing to wait all night, Caleb was sure of it. If that was what Caleb wanted. If that was what Caleb needed.

“I could hurt you,” Caleb said. The words were guttural, torn from his throat. “I could -- I could do more than that,” he finally managed.

“Yes."

Caleb pulled himself from Molly’s chest to look the tiefling in the eyes. “Yes? Just yes? That’s all you have to say?”

Molly let his tongue run over his lips in a slow lick before he shifted slightly on the bed. He rubbed himself against Caleb’s thigh while he looked directly into Caleb’s eyes.

“Yes. You could hurt me. Yes, you could even kill me. I don’t think you will, or we wouldn’t be here.” Molly smiled at Caleb and offered a token resistance to Caleb’s grasp. Caleb tightened his grip instinctually, grinding bone against bone. Molly sucked in a breath and then relaxed into the pain with a shudder.

“You often hurt me, darling. It’s part of the fun. And it wouldn’t sate your demon if we were too tame.” Molly offered a delicate shrug that set his jewelry tinkling. “There’s a greater healing potion in my bags. I doubt you’ll do worse than it could repair.”

Caleb glanced at Molly’s possessions, squeezed his hand over Molly’s wrists once and muttered “Stay.” With a quick shift he pulled himself away from Molly and rummaged through the packs. He pulled aside the potion and set it on a stool near the bed where it joined the fine, silk rope and oils Molly had already set aside.

He took a moment to look Molly over, his form perfectly displayed on the mattress, hands still demurely crossed over his head. His naked body was a tapestry of mysteries. Tattoos trailed over his limbs and hid his secrets by forcing them to be nothing more than part of a ridiculous, flirtatious, and boisterous whole.And yet here was the soul of the man.

Caleb needed to do violence, and here was a creature not just capable, but desiring to endure it.

Caleb felt tears on his cheeks as he moved next to Molly. He enjoyed the moan Molly gave when Caleb grinded into him. In moments Molly was bound to the bed, his wrists wrapped in the silk rope.

“Yes?” Caleb said. He held his breath for a moment, felt his sense of time grow slippery as he waited for a reply.

“Please. Gods. Yes.” Molly arched his body off the bed and fought to touch himself against Caleb. Caleb shifted so that he was fully straddling the bound tiefling. The demon howled in his mind, demanded more, needed more.

Caleb leaned forward and gave Molly one, soft, delicate kiss before he released his demon.

The world shattered and reformed in a breath. Caleb struck Molly across the cheek. A full blow that left his hand stinging and a bit of blood on Molly’s lip. Molly laughed. It was a rich, full sound that filled the room.

Caleb struck him again in the midst of it and then kissed Molly with religious fervor. Molly’s tongue mingled with Caleb’s own as they shared the taste of copper.

“Come now, you want more than that, don’t you?” Molly said as Caleb pulled away from the kiss. Caleb grabbed Mollymauk by his horns and shook him roughly before resting his forehead against Molly’s. His breath came in ragged sobs, tears wetting his cheeks.

Of course he wanted. Of course he needed. He burned with it. Was consumed by it. The only relief was to be in control. To slip Caleb’s leash and claim his desires.

He let a hand slide down the horn to rest on Molly’s cheek. Molly tried to nibble on his fingers, his eyes languid, dark pools of heat. Caleb idly slapped him and marveled at the color that rose in Molly’s left cheek.

“Say it.” Caleb said. His voice had none of the conflict written on his face. The demon purred into Molly’s ear. “I want you to say it.”

“I am yours. Do with me as you will.” His body went completely still. The weight of his cheek rested in the curve of Caleb’s hand.

Caleb slowly trailed his fingers past Molly’s chin. Molly’s eyes drifted closed as Caleb’s fingers found Molly’s pulse. It fluttered wildly against his fingertips. “So beautiful,” Caleb said as his hand gently wrapped around Molly’s throat.

He felt Molly’s surge of approval against him, though his demon paid it little mind. There was something here. Something rapturous about the ever growing pressure and how Molly whimpered as it increased. How that whimper turned into something thready, just on the edge of desperate. Such delicious, harsh, discordant sounds that thrilled him.

Caleb reached back with his other hand and grasped Molly firmly. Molly’s face became a perfect picture of torture, his body arched deeply off the bed as he tried to thrust in Caleb’s grasp.

Caleb wiped his face against Molly’s cheek, Air rushed into Molly as Caleb blew into his mouth when he momentarily loosened his hand as Caleb shifted on the bed.

Caleb leaned back and observed this moment, setting it perfectly into his memory. Molly could barely, barely catch a bit of air if he pulled his body away from Caleb’s hand. Every thrust Molly made tightened Caleb’s grip on Molly’s throat.

Molly grunted as he tried to find release in Caleb’s hand. His eyes widened as he realized the choice. Soft, wheezy breaths escaped him as his only protest.

Caleb smiled.

“Yes.” He said, and leaned ever so slightly more into the choke.

Molly thrust into Caleb’s hand, throttled and muted noises barely escaping his throat before he was forced to stop, quivering.

Caleb allowed the high pitched, whistled breathes to pass past his fingers.

He was as a god. He owned this man. Caleb squeezed both his hands a little harder. The sounds stopped entirely. Dark, red eyes popped open and Mollymauk threw his weight against the silk ropes. The enchantments held and Mollymauk was pulled more tightly to the bed frame.

“Hush now,” Caleb said with gentle conviction. “Give me your life.”

Caleb watched Molly’s silent face, counting in his head, as he stroked Molly with his other hand. In a moment of ecstasy Caleb watched the panic before the orgasm, the convulsions that tore the skin at Molly’s wrists that were bound by the rope. Caleb waited exactly five seconds past that peak, when Molly’s head began to lull, before he released his grip on his throat.

Molly gasped air in fits and coughs. With casual indifference Caleb wiped his hand on Molly’s chest before uncorking the healing potion and pouring it down Molly’s throat. Another shudder went through Molly as he turned his head to the side and cried.

Caleb settled himself against Molly, cradling the tiefling against his chest. With a thought the rope loosened and Molly pulled his hands against himself.

“You are the most beautiful person.” Caleb said warmly, his head nestled against Molly’s shoulder. “I cannot imagine a life without you.”

Molly let out a weak laugh and then cleared his throat again.

“Love, I can’t even describe… I… That.” Molly fell into gentle sobs mixed with euphoric giggles.

Caleb savored every half panicked breath as Molly alternated between waves of exultation and the realization of how close he had come to death.

In time, Molly’s breathing gained a normalcy, a rhythm that spoke of calmer thoughts. Still, Caleb held him, savoring the contact, the trust.

He had almost killed this man, and yet he was allowed not just to live, but to hold him, to comfort him. To be his anchor. As he has been mine.

Caleb tilted his head and breathed in Molly’s scent, now rich with musk. He settled his chin against Molly’s face and breathed a soft word.

“Mine.”

**Author's Note:**

> BDSM ethics lecture incoming.
> 
> This is a fantasy. All responsible kink advocates advise not to do breathplay. There is no risk free breathplay. There is no safe amount of oxygen of which to deprive your brain. 
> 
> It is, in fantastical circumstances, one of the deepest surrender of self to the Other imaginable. Don't confuse fantasy desire for real life adventures. It's a good way to end up in the morgue. 
> 
> End BDSM ethics lecture.


End file.
